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Introduction to WordPress A University of Michigan Library Instructional Technology Workshop

Need help? Visit the Faculty Exploratory or Knowledge Navigation Center on the 2nd floor of the Graduate Library.

[email protected] | http://guides.lib.umich.edu | [email protected]

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Table of Contents

Help ................................................................................................................................ 1

What is Wordpress? ....................................................................................................... 2

Setting Up an Account ................................................................................................. 2

Logging In and Navigating To your Blog .................................................................... 2

The Dashboard .............................................................................................................. 3

Creating a Page ............................................................................................................ 3

Adding A Link ............................................................................................................................................... 4

Adding Images ............................................................................................................................................... 4

Adding a Gallery or Slideshow .................................................................................................................... 5

Publishing ....................................................................................................................... 5

Changing the Theme .................................................................................................... 6

Changing the Background Color ................................................................................................................ 6

Changing the Page Order............................................................................................ 7

Changing the “Home Page” ........................................................................................................................ 7

Changing Other Pages .................................................................................................................................. 7

Widgets .......................................................................................................................... 8

Privacy ........................................................................................................................... 8

Deleting Blog ................................................................................................................. 8

HELP

If you need more help than this handout can provide, here are a few places where you can find help for WordPress.

1. Knowledge Navigation Center on the second floor of the Hatcher Graduate Library or TechDeck on the first floor of the Undergraduate Library.

2. Wordpress.com Support (http://en.support.wordpress.com)

3. Wordpress.com Support Contact (http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact)

4. Wordpress.com Forums (http://en.forums.wordpress.com)

http://en.support.wordpress.com/

http://en.forums.wordpress.com/




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WHAT IS WORDPRESS?

WordPress is a popular open source webpage publishing tool that can also be used to for basic website creation. It comes in two forms - a downloadable and hostable version from WordPress.org, and a hosted version from WordPress.com. The WordPress.com version will be covered in this guide.

SETTING UP AN ACCOUNT

If you already have an account, please skip to the next section – you only have to do this part once.

1. Go to http://www.wordpress.com in your web browser.

2. Click on the orange Get started here button located on the left side of the main page to begin.

3. On the first form you must fill in a blog address (it will default to your username), user name, password, and email address.

4. The final form allows you to choose a title, language, and privacy settings.

5. Once everything is filled out, you can create your site!

LOGGING IN AND NAVIGATING TO YOUR BLOG

Once you’ve created a site, you can get back to it by going to http://www.wordpress.com and entering your username and password in the top left corner.

Once logged in select the My Blog tab, find the blog or page name you wish to edit and click the Dashboard link that appears below the blog or page name. You can also click Create Another Blog.

http://www.wordpress.com/





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THE DASHBOARD

The Dashboard is the first screen you see after logging into the administration area of your website. As you click on the various tabs – for example, Media, Pages, Appearance – you will get different options.

CREATING A PAGE

Hover over the Pages tab in the left-hand sidebar – the word will turn red.

You will see a pop out option to view All Pages or Add New – click on Add New.

In the space at the top where it says, “Enter title here,” type in the title of the page – this will display as the navigational link to this page.

In the bigger editing box below the title, type in the text you’d like to have on your page.

If you copy from Microsoft Word, be sure to use the Paste from Word icon.

Use the icons in the toolbar to change the formatting and alignment of your text.




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ADDING A LINK 1. Highlight the text or select the picture where you want to make a link.

2. Click the Link icon on the toolbar.

3. Type/paste in address; set target (e. g., to open in a new window) if desired.

ADDING IMAGES

Make sure you are in the Visual tab, not the HTML tab.

Place your cursor where you want the image to appear and click on the Add Media icon found in the Upload/Insert icon group directly above your editor.

Click on the Select Files button and choose the image file from your computer or drag and drop files into the box. You can also choose to add picture files from your Wordpress Media Library using the Media Library Tab or from a website using the From URL Tab.

Once you have chosen your photo, fill in the following information:

Title – Text displayed as a tooltip (when a mouse is hovered over the image).

Alternate Text – Text read by screen reading software for those with visual disabilities.

Caption – Image caption displayed directly underneath the image.

Description – Text displayed with the image in your dashboard and attachment pages on your webpage.

Link URL / Link Image to – The URL/web address to which the image will be linked.

Click the File URL button to link the image to its original, full-size version.

Click the Post URL button to have the image linked to its attachment page.

Alignment – The position of the image within your post or page. You can align a picture left, right, or center.

Size – The size of the image.

When finished choosing your image settings, click on the Insert into Post button.




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ADDING A GALLERY OR SLIDESHOW

Adding a slideshow or photo gallery is similar to adding an individual picture.

1. To add a Gallery or Slide Show to your site, follow the steps above for adding a picture, but select all the pictures you want to add to the slideshow or gallery.

2. Use the Show link next to the file names to access the information listed above, and then click on the Save all changes button when you are ready.

3. You will now see a dialog box that lists all your pictures and then has a Gallery Settings section below – at the bottom of it, you will choose to Insert gallery or Insert slideshow.

For additional information, go to the WordPress Help page at http://www.wordpress.com and search for “gallery” or “slideshow.” You will find a step-by-step guide on how to upload pictures, add them to your site, and display them the way you want.

PUBLISHING 1. To save a draft of the page, click the Save Draft button to the right of the

screen. The page will not be visible on the site.

2. Click the Preview button to see what the page will look like.

3. When you’re ready for the world to see your page, click the Publish button. Make sure the visibility is set to Public; otherwise it will not be viewable to everyone.





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CHANGING THE THEME

A WordPress Theme is a collection of files that work together to produce a graphical interface with an underlying, unifying design for a webpage. WordPress.com currently has a very diverse collection of over 140 themes that you can easily preview and activate for your site.

To select a theme,

1. Go to the left navigation bar click on the arrow to the right of Appearance and then click on Themes.

2. Browse through the various themes or search for something specific using the Search box.

3. Once you find one you like, click the Activate link underneath the name of the theme. That theme has now been applied to your site!

CHANGING THE BACKGROUND COLOR

While you might like a particular theme, you might want to change the background color or image. This is also done in Appearance; click on the arrow to the right of Appearance and then click on Background.




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CHANGING THE PAGE ORDER

CHANGING THE “HOME PAGE”

Often you won’t create pages in the order in which you’d like them to display. You can change the “home page” to be anything you’d like.

1. In the left navigation bar, click on the arrow to the right of Settings and then choose Reading.

2. Under Front page displays choose A Static Page and then select a page from the Front page: pulldown menu.

3. If you’d like, choose a different page as your Posts page.

CHANGING OTHER PAGES Pages are normally displayed in alphabetical order. To change the page order:

1. In the left navigation bar click on Pages.

2. As you hover over the different pages, you will see links pop up for Edit, Quick Edit, Trash, and View. Choose Quick Edit for the page you want to move.

3. In the box next to Order, type in a number (numbering starts at 1). If you change the order for one page, you must change it for all the pages. Pages cannot have the same number.

4. Remember: the “Home Page” is set in the Reading Settings (see above) and is defaulted to page 0. You cannot change the order of this page in the Pages section; you can only change it in the Reading Settings.

5. If you want your pages to be in a hierarchy, such as an “About” page with a “Resume” page under it, from the Resume page, you would choose the About page in the Parent pulldown menu.




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WIDGETS

A Widget is a fancy word for tools or content that you can add, arrange, and remove from the sidebars of your webpage. Widgets make it easy to customize the content of your webpage sidebar – the part of your webpage to the left, right or sometimes top or bottom of your main content. As long as you’re running a widget-enabled theme, you can customize what goes into those sidebars. To add a widget:

1. Go to the left navigation bar click on the arrow to the right of Appearance and then click on Widgets.

2. Drag the widget bar you want to add from the Available Widgets or Inactive Widgets areas on the left into the Sidebar area on the right.

3. You will see a dashed outline appear, this shows the placement of the widget without actually placing it. When the widget is in the correct spot, you can then drop it into place.

4. Open the configuration options for a widget by clicking on the arrow to the right of the widget’s name. Options depend on the widget. Some may have none.

a. To delete a widget, click on Delete, once the configuration options are open.

PRIVACY

In the same Settings area you used to change your homepage, if you click on Privacy, you have three choices:

1. Allow search engines to index this site. – This is the setting used by most webpages. It lets everyone read your webpage and allows your webpage to be included in search engines and other content sites.

2. Ask search engines not to index this site. – If you want all human visitors to be able to read your webpage, but want to block web crawlers for search engines, this is the setting for you.

*WordPress Note: Neither of these (above) options blocks access to your site — it is up to search engines to honor your request.

3. I would like my site to be private, visible only to users I choose. – You would use this setting to create a private webpage. If selected, another area will appear where you can control the WordPress.com usernames with access to the webpage.

DELETING BLOG

To delete a blog/site go to Tools and then Delete Site.

NOTE: YOU CANNOT DELETE AN ACCOUNT.

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